More Republican defectors site Palin as reason for lack of support

Peggy Noonan, a conservative pundit with the Wall Street Journal and arguably one of Ronald Regan's most famous speech writers, has recently joined the ranks of anti-Palin political pundits and Republican supporters. Palin isn't the only problem, however. It appears that McCain is McCain's biggest problem this election year.

Noonan, who earlier this campaign year had been caught on tape expressing her "real" views on the Palin pick, has now come out clearly against the new candidate to the national scene and in just a few paragraphs has summed up how I felt about the Palin candidacy from the start - the concept of it is bad for America.

Noonan states,

But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? For seven weeks I've listened to her, trying to understand if she is Bushian or Reaganite—a spender, to speak briefly, whose political decisions seem untethered to a political philosophy, and whose foreign policy is shaped by a certain emotionalism, or a conservative whose principles are rooted in philosophy, and whose foreign policy leans more toward what might be called romantic realism, and that is speak truth, know America, be America, move diplomatically, respect public opinion, and move within an awareness and appreciation of reality.

But it's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things.

Ouch! That is pretty potent stuff for yet another conservative Republican, but Noonan is not alone. Many conservative pundits and other Republicans have been dropping the McCain ticket like flies, many siting the Palin pick as one of the main reasons for their lack of support.

Another recent and significant example is Colin Powell, who came out publicly this weekend endorsing Senator Barack Obama over John McCain. Not only did he make an endorsement, he gave a five minute testimonial for the Obama candidacy that is sure to sway at least a few more conservatives. During his endorsement he sites Palin as one of several reasons why he is not supporting McCain for this election.

The fact of the matter is, McCain had every opportunity to do this differently. Sure, he wanted to "shake things up", so he chose an unknown for his vice presidential pick, but that alone wouldn't have had to have been fatal. It has been what he's done with his campaign since that choice that seems to have fueled then angst of many.

Although the economy has played a large role in what has happened for the McCain campaign, it was not in and of itself, his death warrant. Instead, McCain chose to take a road "less traveled", but nonetheless, not very smart. He decided to attack Obama, instead of attack the economic problem. Instead of apologizing to David Letterman for misleading him, he decided to just say "I screwed up" making him look not only erratic, but unrepentant and dangerously unreliable.

Instead of choosing to spend his time with all his Washington connections to come up with an economic plan that would blow the socks off his Democratic counterpart and woo the American people, he waddled around Congress, raising even more animosity from Congressmen which they expressed openly.

Then, once the campaign started looking more dreary, he became angry, and was unable to contain or conceal it, even (most especially) during national debates with his opponent.

Every article, every report, nearly everything I hear about John McCain is that there is no question, he would be a good president (political leanings aside). He's quirky, he openly expressing animosity and anger, but of late, he decisions have been extremely bad ones, lending himself to not only ridicule, but downright hypocrisy and a loss of respect from many.

It seems fairly clear at this point that Barack Obama will be our next president, and John McCain will once again be relegated to the back stage. It is truly too bad that he has taken very bad advise, and utilized it to this extent, before thinking about what would be best for the American people and his campaign. I fear after this election, McCain will not have much respect left to garner and this truly, will be his last chance at what it appears he sees as the biggest feather in his cap.